While Michael’s total includes equipment beyond cameras — and Flock’s publicly cited figure refers specifically to cameras — the map’s camera count alone is substantially higher than the company’s public tally.
Now, there’s an obvious irony in Flock Safety pushing to have a map of its own surveillance network taken offline. The company makes money helping law enforcement monitor public spaces and track vehicles, but it wants the public map showing where its surveillance devices are located removed. The request came through Doppel, which filed a trademark complaint on Flock’s behalf, according to The Intercept.
What exactly does Michael’s research find?
Michael’s map was built using location data from a snapshot of Flock’s own records that he archived in December 2025. Unlike crowd-sourced maps that rely on people submitting camera locations, his project uses coordinates associated with Flock’s own database. The dataset includes individual device names and other location information.
Among the roughly 130,000 non-camera devices are networking equipment, systems that connect third-party cameras and about 27,000 acoustic detection devices, according to The Intercept.
The map illustrates just how expansive Flock’s network has become.
For example, there seem to be several devices located at detention centers. One camera is listed under the name “C-F-23 FOXTROT MALE HOLDING 2/SHOWERS” at the coordinates of the Silverdale Detention Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There are also unique data points labeled as various locker rooms and rest rooms.
The Intercept also visited six randomly selected locations in Arizona and found a Flock camera at each location, though the spot check does not independently establish that every location on the map is accurate.
Now, Michael is under pressure
Flock’s automated license plate readers capture vehicle information and make it searchable by law enforcement agencies. Flock has said its network now serves thousands of law enforcement agencies and processes billions of vehicle scans each month.
However, a Washington Post investigation found that at least 50 law enforcement officers had been charged or accused of misusing license-plate-reader systems, including to monitor people in their personal lives.
